Brewery: Getting Close

Well, I think I am starting to see the finish line on the brewery. It’s getting very close to done. I’ve been out in the garage bending tube and plumbing every spare hour I have. This past weekend I finally finished the final version of the manifold pieces and I mounted them on the stand. I ended up using some split ring conduit hangers from Lowes. They are galvanized, and I would prefer stainless, but the only source for stainless ones I can find are 10 times the price. I can live with galvanized for now.

Last night I finished the lines that go from the pumps to the manifold and tonight I finished the HLT return, HEX input and MLT return. These three we going to be the most difficult and I had only planned to finish one of them tonight but it actually went pretty quick thanks to some Swagelok 90 degree elbows I bought a few weeks back so I just pushed through and did all three. I’m really happy with how it turned out.

Only things left to do are the BK return and the plumbing for the chiller. I am still short a few parts for the chiller, so that will have to wait till Thursday probably, but I hope to do the BK return tomorrow night. With any luck all the major work will be done by this weekend and I can spend the weekend doing wet testing and tuning. Doubt I will be able to fit a brew in, but you never know. Here’s hoping!

[slickr-flickr tag=”brewery20110802″]